Can Twitter be used as a workplace tool?

The study said that despite the inherent simplicity, microblogs are evolving into a richly-nuanced medium for maintaining awareness, building relationships, and finding and sharing valuable information from internal and external sources.

The study analyzed more than 5,000 microblog posts from a group of IBM employees who used both a proprietary internal tool to post and Twitter to post externally. The internal IBM micro-blog, called BlueTwit, has many of the same features as Twitter except it had a limit of 250 characters instead of 140 and could only be used internally.

Some key findings:

Real-time Information Sharing and Awareness — IBM heard repeatedly from employees that the value of Twitter was to get access to good information sooner than through other sources. It provided access to thought leaders without having to know them personally. For instance one person said:

“As far as Twitter is concerned the value is two-fold: learning much of what is happening in the marketplace, picking up trends, and picking up news… get a lot of news items earlier that way than any other way… With Twitter I know it’s a human who has selected the information and is saying that you should read this article. RSS feed is robotic selection for topics while Twitter is human selection based on the quality of my network”

Collaboration and Connection — Reading BlueTwit allowed employees to become aware of what their colleagues were working on in areas of the company they would not normally access. BlueTwit was also used for social purposes. For example, some people used BlueTwit to broadcast lunch and dinner plans asking others if they were interested in joining. An important side effect of microblogging is that mobile and remote workers felt more connected to the company.

Employees equated interaction on BlueTwit as “family conversation.” Users could engage in constructive criticism of company products since all discussion was internal. They would avoid doing that on Twitter because they did not want to give the company a bad name. Contrary to a common perception that microblogs are really just for posting messages about personal activities, IBM found that workplace employees are mostly using the tools to post business information and to engage in brief directed conversation with other employees.

Political expedience — Microblogging can increase the visibility of a topic compared to discussing it over email or instant messenger. Since microblogs are generally public and searchable, more people have access to it. Some employees reported using microblogging intentionally when they wanted to get more visibility on an issue. “Value as an employee is to be visible inside the company,” said one employee. Another participant mentioned, “If I only ask questions then people will see me as someone who only asks questions. But if I answer, people will see me as someone as who knows and who can help.”

Crowd-sourcing — The report mentioned that one of the benefits of microblogging that has not received as much attention is its use for “crowdsourcing”. Participants said they got a more rapid response to questions because more people beyond their normal network, including many technology experts, were awares of their problems.

Confidentiality — There was no ambiguity about posting confidential information; all participants exercised common sense and were very clear that they would never post any information that might be construed as confidential on Twitter or even BlueTwit.

Negatives:

Participants mentioned that the sheer amount of information on Twitter can get overwhelming, and not all of it is useful.

Some users had concerns about spending too much time wading through various pieces of information. Finding intelligent ways of filtering information in microblogging tools such that only information relevant to an individual user is visible is needed for widespread use of microblogging in the workplace.

IBM found opportunity in using micro-blogging with employees. Is it happening in your company yet? Why or why not?

Definitely! Microsoft are even reportedly working on an in-company solution.

About ten years ago when I was a lecturer at Stockholm University we used to use a text based messaging system the university had between the staff. It was much easier than tracking all the email overload we got.

In many ways Twitter is a more advanced version of this. I’d certainly like the idea of forming private and public networks with a microblogging service like this.

Companies that I’ve talked to are still very much rooted in either email or Skype messaging. I suspect it won’t be until the big guns like Microsoft enter the space that some companies stop and take a look.

It’s a shame, really, because I do think that microblogging is brilliant for simple messaging, and real time search.

Mark

@ Jon — I agree. One of the implications here is that if Twitter doesn’t provide a “corporate edition” soon it will be trounced by a competitor … maybe even IBM!

I think an “internal Twitter” makes so much sense for large, global companies. I worked remotely for awhile for a Fortune 100 company and I would have loved to have had something like this to have quick touch points around the company.

I also thought another point I hadn’t considered were the POLITICAL aspects and advantages of having a lively internal company Twitter presence.

http://lauramalypenandink.wordpress.com Laura Maly

Mark, this is a great article that clearly explains the pros (and cons) of using microblogging as a company – internally. This is something my company has been flirting with but as yet has not adopted. This is just more fuel for the fire. Thanks for sharing! =) Laura

Mark

@Laura — Glad you found this helpful. A fascinating topic!

http://correlationist.wordpress.com Prince

Incredibly topical stuff, Mark. Thank you for digging this up for us

Would be interesting to find out the specifics of their SM policy, as it relates to the regulation of “message”, both within, and outside the company. I am also certain that IBM uses these collaborative platforms with their suppliers/customers too.

Thanks once again, Mark.

Cheers,
Prince

http://www.crowbarmarketing.com Pete Healy

While I was at the WonderGroup agency in Cincinnati we made good use of Yammer, which is specifically designed to function as an internal Twitter. Well, some of us made good use of it; even in a digital ad agency in 2008 there were still skeptics. Even so, it was a great way to share info, insights, and updates in real time.

http://www.jonbuscall.com Jon Buscall

An organisation with 50 staff asked me to look into this issue and I have to say that fiddling with Yammer I can see possibilities.

The downside is that Yammer’s desktop client is an Air app, which tend to suck resources out of your computer. Still, anyone who has used Twitter (and Tweetie) will get Yammer in an instant.

Question: How do you introduce an app like this to a staff where only 1% are on Twitter?

Mark

@ Jon — Sounds like an interesting opportunity. Since Pete Healy (above) has some direct experience with this, maybe it would be worth a conversation with him? Pete is a great resource and a very helpful guy!

http://www.jonbuscall.com Jon Buscall

@Mark, Thanks for the tip.

I’m rushing around like a headless chicken right now as I’m lecturing on social media to a bunch of high school kids today. But I’m curious to hear what Pete has to say about implementing Yammer. Thanks!

@ Mark, this just goes to show us all that there is a lot more going on “behind the scenes” with huge justifications. This is the kind of case information that is most important to this industry right now so that people really get a sense of the new reality and its relative business / social value.
Thanks for sharing!

http://correlationist.wordpress.com Prince

@steve – Thanks for sharing the IBM policy link. It is folks like you (& Mark) who go out of their way to add value, who make this experience so special. Thank you once again.

I also wanted to share a link on Ent2.o I had shared with Mark, Jon, and Laura yesterday. http://ow.ly/1sibJ

Cheers,

Mark

Glad to see you guys working together. Nice to see collaboration in action!

Erich

Hi Mark,
We at http://www.twitqa.com/ are having a case study on how effectively twitter can be injected into the Corporate work space (Just like IM) so that the responses and discussions are more transparent.

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